


Rabbit-of-the-Heart

by FireEye



Category: Watership Down - Richard Adams
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 04:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16422338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: How Silverweed came to leave the only warren he's ever known.





	Rabbit-of-the-Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Edonohana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/gifts).



In the end, he died not by the shining wire from which he was named, but from a wandering elil.  It was neither the death he had been anticipating since kittenhood, nor truly the one he had wanted.  But, it was the release he sought nonetheless.

And yet, he found, having lived his life in reverence to the wires, even the Black Rabbit didn’t want him.

The old story was certainly true.  The Black Rabbit was there, always, in the corner of his vision.  Waiting at the snares for those that still lived.  But he lingered, and the warren of choking death and dried bones went on without him, as it went on with all who were forgotten.

Winter came and went.  Rabbits came and went.  But Silverweed haunted the hollows, unseen, humming to himself for there was no one else.

In spring, a young doe and her buck were frolicking, healthy and young.  He saw the Black Rabbit clearly then, waiting for them in the tall grass.

Except...

They refused to accept their fate, as all good rabbits did.  When the buck was caught in the snare, shining silver under the moonlight, the doe refused to leave him.  And, refusing to let him be taken by it, she dug into the earth to free him.

Silverweed came to sit by the Black Rabbit, for even in life he had never feared Inlé, and he was already dead.  The Black Rabbit was motionless, timeless.  He watched the struggle silently, pale eyes unblinking.  Silverweed’s gaze was drawn to the doe.

He didn’t understand.  If the buck died, then she lived a little longer.

Wasn’t it better to have certainty of one only enemy, rather than face the Thousand?

With a harsh _snap_ , the wire went slack.  The Black Rabbit was gone from his side.  The pair would be killed if they were found, and so they left.

Together.

Alive.

There was a story.  Of hlessi who ran, and rose up into the sky.  Silverweed didn’t remember whether he had dreamed it, or made up the story himself.  Or if it had happened, so long ago, now, it seemed.

But these two ran the same path.  And so, Silverweed followed them.  Away from the warren.  They didn’t know where they were going, except for _away_.  Far away.  Like the hlessi before them.  But Silverweed knew.

He remembered the way.

After all, he had composed the tale, had he not?

When they didn’t know which way to go, or what they were looking for, he led them.  The downs rose out of the mist.  And high above, a warren touched by Frith.

There was wariness there, among the rabbits of the high warren.  The older bucks knew Silverweed’s warren, and its secrets that were kept from outsiders.  But there was a kindness among them, for taking in a pair of straggling hlessi.  For no reason, other than they were all rabbits, and the shining wires held no dominion here.

As they were being welcomed, a diminutive buck slipped away from the rest.  Making straight for him. 

Silverweed remembered him, for once Silverweed had dreamed him, and even in life, Silverweed had remembered his dreams more vividly than his reality.  They were much the same, and very different.  And in the other, there was no fear, only confusion.

“You don’t belong here,” Fiver said.

“No,” Silverweed agreed.

Fiver offered him nothing else.  Had nothing else to offer.  Without another word, he wandered back to the burrows.  Silverweed didn’t understand, any more than Fiver did.

Nor did he return to the Warren of the Snares.

**Author's Note:**

> Forever fascinated by Bunny Seers. ...and I know Silverweed is named after a plant, but the double meaning hit me and I couldn't not use it.


End file.
